Blaine Kunselman does not take a deposit until the day he shows up. In an industry where horror stories about contractors disappearing with a homeowner's check have become almost routine, that policy alone would make him unusual. But it is also just a natural expression of how he thinks about the work and the people he does it for. He figures he could ride his Harley tomorrow and never come back, and he does not want anyone's money sitting with him if that happens. It is a blunt way of putting it, but it captures something real about the man: he is not interested in getting over on anyone. He is interested in doing the job correctly and being called back for the next twenty years.
Blaine runs a concrete and masonry operation serving the greater Chester County, Delaware County, and Northern Delaware area. The work ranges from garage floors and driveways to retaining walls, chimney rebuilds, waterproofing, and full backyard outdoor living spaces. He has been doing this in some form for 25 years, and at 40 years old, he is clear-eyed about the fact that there is no other plan. This is it. Which, as it turns out, is exactly the kind of thinking that makes a contractor worth trusting.
What Homeowners Keep Running Into Before They Find the Right Concrete Crew
Concrete is not a glamorous trade, but it is a consequential one. A patio poured wrong, a driveway that cracks in the first season, a drainage solution that redirects water toward a foundation instead of away from it: these mistakes are expensive to fix and hard to undo. And unlike paint, concrete does not forgive. You do it right or you do it over.
The common failure mode in this trade is not usually dramatic dishonesty. It is a subtler kind of disengagement. A contractor sells the job, takes the deposit, and then gradually becomes harder to reach. The crew shows up irregularly. Questions go unanswered. By the time a homeowner realizes the project is not being managed the way it was described, they are already committed financially and there is little leverage left.
There is also a problem of scope mismatch. Homeowners who want a real project, a well-built outdoor space, a properly engineered drainage system, a patio with real borders and detail work, sometimes end up with a crew that treats every job as a commodity to be finished quickly and invoiced. The finished product is technically a patio. It just does not look like what anyone envisioned.
Twenty-Five Years in One Trade, Building Something That Lasts
Blaine did not choose concrete so much as concrete chose him. He has spent his entire working life in the trade, learning it at good companies and bad ones, absorbing what worked from both. The bad employers taught him what not to do. The good ones taught him the craft itself. By the time he started his own operation, he had enough exposure to know exactly where the industry let people down, and enough skill to do it differently.
The moment that crystallized something for him came in 2022, when he won a Delaware County Historical Society Award for restoration work on a house in Bethel Township. Documented, photographed, recognized by people who care deeply about what structures look like and how long they last. For a concrete and masonry guy, that kind of recognition means something specific: the work was right. Not just functional. Right.
"We built this with blood, sweat, and tears. We're always gonna answer the phone. We do what we say we're gonna do, and we take pride in it. We treat everything like it's our house."
Blaine Kunselman, BMK Concrete & Masonry
His crew is small and consistent at the core, built around a few guys who have been doing this long enough to know what they are doing and why it matters. Blaine is direct about how he selects people: the vibe has to be right, and anyone who disrupts it does not last. He fired a laborer on site, in front of the homeowner, for saying something offensive. The client watched it happen from the window. He does not apologize for that standard. A crew that behaves badly reflects on him, and he is not willing to let that happen regardless of the short-term cost.
How the Work Gets Done
Blaine's services span concrete and masonry from foundations to finish work. On the concrete side: driveways, garage floors, patios, sidewalks and walkways, slabs, curbs, and concrete repair and resurfacing. On the masonry side: brick and stone installation, retaining walls, chimney repair and rebuilds, tuckpointing, stucco repair, step repair, and basement wall finishing. The company also handles drainage work, including French drains, yard and driveway drains, catch basins, channel drains, downspout extensions, sump pump systems, and waterproofing. Trenching and excavation round out the service list.
What distinguishes the finished product is that Blaine does not treat any of it as interchangeable. When he builds a concrete patio, it does not come back as a plain broom-finish slab. He thinks about borders, about diamond cuts, about what the client actually had in mind when they described the space. He uses a phrase that captures his approach well: he tries to envision her vision. The goal is not to complete a job. It is to deliver the thing the client was picturing when they made the call.
He communicates throughout. He is on the job, not calling in from somewhere else. Clients have questions; he answers them. He talks to them every day if they are around. He pushes kids on swings and throws the ball for the dog. By the end of a project, most of his clients feel less like they hired a contractor and more like they know one.
"I'm not here for the one job. I want longevity. I want you to call me for the next 20 years."
Blaine Kunselman, BMK Concrete & Masonry
He also knows when to walk away from a job. If he can see that something is not going to work the way a client wants it to, he says so. He has turned down jobs that looked good on paper because he could see the outcome was going to be a problem. The short-term revenue is not worth the damage to a reputation he has been building for a quarter century.
Who He Serves and Where
Blaine works across Chester County, Delaware County, and Northern Delaware, with particular focus on the kinds of properties where concrete and masonry work has real scope: stone homes, larger lots, established neighborhoods where homeowners are invested in their properties and not looking for the cheapest way to check a box. His ideal client is not necessarily wealthy in the abstract sense. He is more interested in someone who is excited about the project, committed to doing it right, and ready to have a real conversation about what they want. House flippers who need concrete poured fast and cheap can find someone else. Homeowners who want it done correctly and want to actually enjoy the process of getting there are the ones he wants to hear from.
If you have been looking for a concrete and masonry contractor who answers the phone, stays on the job, and does not take your money until the day he shows up to earn it, now you know where to find one.